As part of our celebration of Black History Month, here on ChellyWood.com, we’ve studied the Nakatukok of Uganda and Central Africa, we’ve examined the boubou of Senegal and West Africa, and we’ve tried to answer questions about the gele or head-tie, which is popular all over the continent of Africa (as well as abroad).

Another unique garment, found in Algeria, Morocco, and North Africa is the djellaba. After much inquiry and research, today I want to share what I’ve learned about this item of African clothing, the places where it’s worn, and how its history can help us look ahead to the future.

According to the Marrakech Riad website, “The Djellaba has a history that traces back to Berber traditions of clothing, and is worn in different styles and variations across the Maghreb region of North Africa. As well as being ceremonial, the long, loose fitting robe has a practical design which protects the wearer from strong desert winds as well as the icy climes of the mountain regions across Morocco and Algeria.”

As an American, I’d describe this garment as a floor-length formal-looking hoodie without the front pocket. Also, because it’s worn by Muslims, when it’s not made of a solid-colored fabric, it utilizes stripes and geometric patterns for its printed fabrics and trims.

For those of you who are unaware, traditional Muslims don’t wear cloth that has patterns of living beings from God’s creation. Rather, the fabric can have patterns like stripes or geometric shapes, but anything created by the hand of God is sacred and therefore, should not be re-created by art forms.

In a Wikipedia article entitled, “Aniconism in Islam,” this traditional belief is explained like this: “In some forms of Islamic art, aniconism (the avoidance of images of sentient beings) stems in part from the prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that the creation of living forms is God’s prerogative.”

And as we saw in the blog post about the boubou, Islam has a very long history in Africa.

Today the djellaba is often made of wool in colder climates or cotton in warmer climates. “Traditional djellabas are generally made of two types of material, cotton for summer wear and coarse wool for the winter. The wool is typically obtained from sheep in the surrounding mountains. Buttons for djellabas are made in the town of Bhalil.” Bhalil is a town in the norther portion of Morocco.

In modern times, both women and men wear the djellaba, but I don’t think it’s surprising to learn that women tend to wear the djellaba with more varieties of color and flair. “The female design of the Djelleba perhaps sees the greatest range of stylistic variation, where alterations between the colours, patterns and sleeve [lengths] are vast.”

It seems like women have a knack for embellishing their attire, all over the world, doesn’t it? We can’t help it. We always want to look pretty, even when society and/or religion bridles our creative energies!

Ironically, I was at the grocery store just the other day, and I saw two Muslim women wearing something akin to the djellaba in muted shades of black and grey, but each of them also wore a brilliantly colorful hijab — a type of head scarf — but there you go! Women know how to express their creativity, even when dressing modestly!

As I said earlier in this post, men’s styles differ from women’s, and sometimes the color of the djellaba can indicate a man’s marital status (depending upon where he’s from). “Men often wear a light-coloured djellaba sometimes along with a traditional Arab red fez hat and soft yellow babouche slippers (balgha in Arabic) for religious celebrations and weddings.”

In terms of its history, there has been some debate about where the word djellaba comes from. There were theories that this word was associated with the men who sold slaves.

However in more modern times, this theory has been censured. “Reinhart Dozy’s theory that the djellaba would have been, originally, the ‘garment of the djellab,’ that is to say of the slave trader, has been rejected by William Marçais who proposed to see in djellaba an alteration of djilbab which, in ancient Arabic, meant draped clothing, although the djellaba is sewn rather than draped.” So it sounds like that debate is ongoing.

But this is a blog post about Black History Month, and Black History in America is inextricably tied to the African slave trade. So what role does Morocco play in that history? It’s time to address the elephant in the room.

To be honest with you, Wikipedia is very vague about this connection, and I’m not 100% sure I trust these articles. I mean, no Muslim wants to be associated with the history of the African slave trade, any more than Christians do, although both parties have had their fingers in that pot.

So in my quest to find more answers, I delved into the peer-reviewed journals in the archive at Taylor & Francis Online. I found an article in The Journal of North African Studies, entitled, “Morocco: the last great slave market?”

In this article, it explains that once slavery was abolished in Europe, Morocco seems to have continued a sort of under-the-table slave trade. “Following partly‐effective European abolitionist measures and other pressures, patterns of the Saharan slave trade underwent many changes from about 1840 onwards, with more slaves diverted from central desert markets to Morocco.”

The article implies that because it was outlawed in Europe, slave traders had to be more sneaky and underhanded about their dirty deeds, which is why, sadly, very few records exist for the Moroccan export of slaves. African Americans deserve to know the history of their ancestors, so more research is certainly needed.

As this is my last research article on fashion history as it relates to African Americans, in celebration of Black History Month, I want to end with a personal story and a call to action.

About a year ago, my oldest daughter traveled to Kuwait to visit a college friend of hers, who came from a wealthy Kuwaiti family. In the kitchen of her friend’s house, she met two women who had been employed as indentured servants.

In talking with these two women who had been “imported” (for lack of a better word) from the Philippines, my daughter discovered that they had no civil rights. They were punished when they didn’t follow the orders of the people in power. They couldn’t leave Kuwait, but they were not considered citizens of Kuwait either. Sound familiar?

These two women were modern-day slaves, and they were not the only enslaved people my daughter encountered while she visited Kuwait.

In my research, I found some interesting facts at WalkFree.org, an international human rights group focused on the eradication of modern slavery. These facts back up the truth of my daughter’s story. “According to the Global Slavery Index 2023, an estimated 13.0 in every thousand people were in modern slavery in Kuwait at any point in 2021.” If you don’t believe it, click here to read the facts in an easy-to-download PDF infographic form.

You might think, “But Kuwait is one of our allies, aren’t they?” During the wars in Iraq, the country of Kuwait hosted our military, giving us (according to Wikipedia) a “springboard for the US-led invasion of Iraq.” That’s friendly, right?

Yeah… maybe… not. Why are we friends with Kuwait? It’s where our oil has been coming from — the stuff that’s refined to become fuel for gas burning cars — at least, that’s where it used to come from… until very recently.

Want to see a history of US Presidents and their foreign oil policies vs. promises? Click here.

Want to see which years we Americans imported the most vs. the least amount of oil from Kuwait to the US? Click here. Interestingly, that graph shows that during Donald Trump’s presidency, we saw a significant decrease in the purchase of oil from Kuwait; but keep in mind, that could be because nobody drove anywhere. It was during Covid! We were all stuck at home!

But that graph does show actual gaps during Joe Biden’s presidency. If you scroll down on that graph to see the month-by-month breakdown, there were months when the US didn’t buy ANY oil from Kuwait while Biden was in the White House. (That will certainly put the pinch on modern-day slavery!) And if you’re thinking, “How come this isn’t in the news?” it actually is…

In an article from CNN Business, called “Under Biden, US oil production is poised to break Trump-era records,” reporter Matt Egan states, “Critics accuse President Joe Biden of waging a war on the oil industry that is hurting consumers at the gas pump. And yet, on his watch, US oil production is poised to shatter all-time records set during the Trump administration.” And there’s a lot more to that story. Click here to read the whole article for yourselves.

Alas, I find myself going down a political rabbit hole that could go on forever. It’s tricky to not lose track of the original theme for this month… Black History.

In the 1860 US presidential election, my fellow countrymen and women voted for Abraham Lincoln, who brought an end to slavery in the United States. It wasn’t easy. People made sacrifices to change the way we raised crops and fed our families.

That election altered the way Americans think of slavery in the United States for many generations to come. But in the long run, it was worth it because we ended slavery…

Or did we?

It’s interesting how a deep dive into the history of this article of traditional African clothing, the djellaba, has brought me face to face with a modern-day problem… the enslavement of human beings, not just in Kuwait, but in many countries of the world. WalkFree.org estimates that “50 million people in the world” are enslaved today.

I’m not saying that voting for Lincoln, way back in 1860, was ineffective. It was very effective! The abolitionist movement gave citizenship to countless Americans of African heritage. But I do wonder… Can we learn from slavery’s history? Or are we doomed to repeat the errors of the past?

So to my fellow Americans, I ask that you do your homework this year. We celebrate Black History Month so we can learn from the past.

I won’t tell you how to vote, but I hope I’ve given you some food for thought (and a few good website links) as we brace ourselves for this election year. When you watch the news, you may feel powerless about modern-day slavery, the cost of gasoline, and the US’s reliance on foreign oil. However, you ARE NOT powerless.

Like our ancestors did in the 1860 election, we can make a difference with one vote. But please, please, don’t let Facebook tell you how to vote! Don’t let the news tell you how to vote either.

Do. Your. Own. Research.

Sources:

Egan, Matt. “Under Biden, US oil production is poised to break Trump-era records.” CNN Business, Cable News Network (A Warner Bros. Discovery Company). 9 Aug. 2023. Web. Accessed 27 Jan. 2024.

Markley, Stephan. “Last 8 Presidents Have Promised Independence from Foreign Oil.” cars.com 13 May 2010. Web. Accessed 27 Jan. 2024.

No Author. “MOROCCAN STYLE – THE TRADITIONAL DJELLABA.” Marrakech Riad. April 2014. Web. Accessed 27 Jan. 2024.  https://www.marrakech-riad.co.uk/2014/04/moroccan-syle-the-traditional-djellaba/#:~:text=The%20Djellaba%20has%20a%20history,Maghreb%20region%20of%20North%20Africa.

US Department of Energy. “US Imports from Kuwait of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products.” eia.gov (Energy Information Administration). 29 Dec. 2023. Web. Accessed 27 Jan. 2024.

Walk Free 2023, Global Slavery Index 2023, Minderoo Foundation. Available from https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/

Wikipedia contributors. “Aniconism in Islam.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Dec. 2023. Web. 27 Jan. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. “Djellaba.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Dec. 2023. Web. 27 Jan. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. “Kuwait.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Jan. 2024. Web. 27 Jan. 2024.

Wright, John (2002) “Morocco: the last great slave market?,” The Journal of North African Studies, 7:3, 53-66, DOI: 10.1080/13629380208718473

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